European Kingdoms

Celtic Tribes

Anarti
(Gauls)

In
general terms, the Romans
coined the name 'Gaul' to describe the
Celtic tribes of what is now
central, northern and eastern
France. The Gauls were
divided from the Belgae
to the north by the Marne and the Seine, and from the Aquitani to the south
by the River Garonne, and they also extended into
Switzerland, northern
Italy, and along the Danube.
By the middle of the first century BC, the Anarti were a minor tribe that
was located along a narrow band of surviving Celtic expansion to the north
of the Danube, on the east bank of the Tisia (the modern Tisza, which rises
in the far west of Ukraine)
in modern northern Serbia
and southern Hungary.
They were neighboured to the north and east by Dacian tribes and a small
pocket of the Celtic
Boii, to the
south by the Sarmatian Iazyges, and across the Danube to the west by
further Celts, the Eravisci
and Hercuniates.

This La Tène tribe was also known as the Anartes and Anartoi, variations on
the original name, the latter being Greek. 'Anarti' seems to be made up of
'an-', which is a negative prefix in front of 'arat', meaning 'a servant'.
That makes the tribe the 'not-servants', in other words not slaves, 'the
free men'. The connotation is rather negative, suggesting that they had
been slaves or subjugated in the past.

Given the fact that the Anarti were located within a slim ribbon of Celtic
settlement along the Danube, their former subjugators could have been any
one of a number of Dacian or Sarmatian tribes. Given that observation, and
the tribe's name, they could perhaps have been formed only recently, in
the first or second century BC. Some scholars place a group called the
Anartophracti (clearly of a shared origin) in south-eastern Poland. The
Upper Tisza is close enough geographically to this part of Poland, so the
two groups may have divided relatively recently, again perhaps due to
circumstances related to their presumed subjugation. The Anartophracti are
mentioned by Ptolemy, who uses his Greek to mangle the original name, but
writing in the early twentieth century, Wilhelm Braune believed them to be
wholly Dacian, while Vasile Parvan writing a couple of decades later called
them a Celto-Dacian mix.

As noted by Julius Caesar in his Gallic Wars, the Hercynian Forest
(known to the Greeks as Orcynia - the modern Black Forest forms its western
part) is home to a mixture of Germans and a once-powerful arm of the
Volcae Tectosages.
The forest lies on the east bank of the Rhine (this forms the northern border
of the lands known to the ancient writers of the Mediterranean, and the
modern Black Forest forms its western part). Its breadth is such that it
takes a quick traveller nine days to cross it through uncertain paths, as
there are no known roads. It begins at the frontiers of the
Helvetii,
Nemetes, and
Raurici, and
extends in a line along the River Danube to the territories of the Daci
and the Anarti. From there its borders twist northwards into the vast
lands that have not been charted by the Mediterranean cultures.

10 BC

The Anarti are mentioned again in the Elogium of Tusculum, an inscription
found in the town of that name to the south of
Rome.
Inscribed during the early days of the empire, while Augustus rules, it
contains a description of a Roman legate of Illyricum negotiating with the
Anarti and
Cotini (the latter being located to the north of the former).

The River Tisia (the modern Tisza) rises in western Ukraine and
meanders south-westwards to meet the Danube, providing fertile
river valley land for migrating Celts in the second and first
centuries BC, depite the threat from sometimes hostile Dacians

c.AD 172 - 180

Surprisingly, given their proximity to more aggressive Dacian tribes, the
Anarti still exist and occupy the same lands as before. Around this time
they refuse to aid
Rome
in its ongoing war against the
Marcomanni.
Punishment from Emperor Marcus Aurelius comes in the form of the deportation
of the Anarti from their territory into the Roman province of Pannonia
Inferior. This forced migration takes place before the end of the decade,
although it is unclear whether it concerns the entire tribe, lock stock and
barrel. Given its lack of historical mention after this date, this does seem
likely.

5th century

The former Anarti tribal region forms part of the
Germanic kingdom of
Gepidia
during the late fifth and the first half of the sixth centuries. This is
destroyed in 567 by the
Langobards
and the territory is soon occupied by the Avars. Following later Slavic
migrations into the area, it subsequently goes on to form the northern parts
of Serbia.